Wow, okay, I don’t even know where to start. There is a lot to unpack from this series.

This is NOT a spoiler free review because no one will probably read it anyway..
And if you are reading it and have not read it.
READ IT then come back and read this.. LOL

Catfishing on CatNet is a young adult novel by Naomi Kritzer about a teenage girl named Steph who has spent her life on the run with her mother trying to get away from her murderous father. Her only constant is CatNet, an online community where she can keep her anonymity.   Her Mom is a computer programmer so she is able to get jobs anywhere (true remote working).

Within CatNet she is known as  Little Brown Bat (LBB) and has many friends in a clowder which is a group of cats! (Brilliant huh?). Steph’s friends on CatNet include, Firestar, Hermione, Boom Storm, Icosahedron, Marvin and Greenberry. Here’s the twist: the CatNet site is run by an A.I. who loves Cat Memes!! They use they/the pronouns because they have a non-binary identity and goes by the name CheshireCat. Their favorite clowder is Steph’s of course and when they finds out that Steph is in danger, they goes all out to help save her!

Back to the story, at their newest temporary location, Steph makes a new friend, Rachel. Rachel is a really good artist and Steph caught her drawing a picture of herself! She told Rachel it was really good. I think that was the moment they became friends.

About a quarter of the way into the book, CheshireCat comes clean to Steph that they is AI. It takes a while for Steph to believe them, but she eventually does. I really love it when CheshireCat takes over the SexEd Robot. I mean, seriously, just imagine what you would get if your SexEd robot could google answers… yeah.. you get the idea!! Hilarious!!! I also love that we get to read CheshireCat’s thought processes as they learns and grows and works at making friends. It really is strangely relatable and I enjoy the creativity of the author.

Then, Steph’s mom has to go to the hospital and that changes everything. The hospital is online and has records. Soon, Steph has to go on the run on her own because her father is coming to take her away. After a chase, he finds her but with CheshireCat’s help, they escape. CheshireCat actually takes over a car just like they took over the SexEd robot and uses the car to stop Steph’s father from hurting Steph by driving the car into him. (He tried firing his gun at the oncoming driverless car, LOL)

After being saved from Steph’s father, Steph realizes that CheshireCat has disappeared and the Clowder doesn’t know what to do. A random message from someone called WhiteRabbit shows up with an address  and after some discussion and concern (is it a trap???) the girls drive up to Cambridge Massachusetts to save them. Firestar and Hermione are in Boston, Marvin is 12 hours away. Icosahedron is from California so won’t be able to join the adventure.  WhiteRabbit then sends some of the clowder money to pay for the trip.

It takes the girls two days to get to Boston from Wisconsin. They find CheshireCat’s creator, Annette, who is really surprised that everyone came to save her AI. She took some convincing though, because who really will beleive in a couple of teens. Eventually, Annette orders pizza and then allows Steph to talk to CheshireCat directly. She even attaches CheshireCat to a speaker to give them a voice.

Annette is concerned because if CheshireCat does anything bad, she will be blamed. When Steph asks if her mother would be blamed if she turned into a serial killer, Annette responds that Steph’s mother gave birth to her, but Annette “assembled [CheshireCat’s] moral system out of computer code”. Steph sneakily helps CheshireCat to copy themselves onto Steph’s mom’s computer.

Unfortunately, this was when Steph’s dad, Michael, found them again and he still has his gun. It seems that Steph’s Mom had coded a very unique bit of programming that could basically allow the user to take over everything and that’s what Michael wanted… to control the world (*rolls eyes*)

CheshireCat takes over a bunch of robots in the area, from a place called Cherry Pi and surrounds the house and eventually wraps him in saran wrap. Annette finds the widget that is downloading CheshireCat. (It also turns out that Annette is part owner of Cherry Pi and programmed the robots). She calls 911 and they all agree to not mention CheshireCat. The police were confused by the situation. Fortunately CheshireCat also recorded the entire event. There was full proof of everything Michael did at Annette’s house.

With Michael in jail, Steph and her mom can finally stop running.

There is still the question about WhiteRabbit. In fact, they think WhiteRabbit might be another AI.

To be continued in the next book, Chaos on CatNet.

This blog is part of a 52 week challenge